


Three Ghosts Of Christmas

by NotAPoet



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Gen, Post Season 5, SPOILERS AHEAD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 07:47:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9169276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotAPoet/pseuds/NotAPoet
Summary: The first Christmas after the war, Shaw gets a visit by three ghosts from her past.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be finished before Christmas, but oh well.

It was the first December after the war. Christmas was approaching. Decorations were out. Carolers were singing. The usual spirit was in the air. Not that Shaw felt anything. She never did. But something was different this year, and it wasn't in a good way. First they lost Carter, then Root. Then Reese, too. Finch was still AWOL. Even The Machine couldn't locate him. It was just her and Fusco now. Yet, the numbers kept coming. With Fusco working his day job, she had to pick up most of the slack. Which was good. She liked to keep busy. She took her anger out on the perps. It was her form of therapy.

“Come on, Bear.” Shaw gave a tug on the leash. It had started to snow again. She wanted to go home for the night. The dog stopped sniffing. Together, they walked the short distance from the park back to her apartment. Bear had his dinner. Shaw chose to stay on a liquid diet that night. There was some Whiskey left in the bottle. Soon, she crawled into her bed, in hopes of a good night's sleep without waking up in terror. The events of the past year were still haunting her in her dreams. Not that the alcohol was any help with that.

She couldn't have been asleep for that long when she thought she heard someone call her name. For a moment, she almost thought Root had broken into her apartment again. But Root was dead. And Bear wasn't barking. So she was clearly imagining things. She tried to go back to sleep. Then she heard it again, louder. “Wake up, Shaw!” Somehow, the voice sounded familiar. But Shaw, being half-asleep, couldn't quite place it. Hesitantly, she opened one eye. There was a dark figure standing next to her bed. Shaw jerked awake, sitting up and scooting backwards against the headboard out of reflex. It was only then that she examined the figure more closely. It was ...Carter? And just when Shaw thought she had her grasp on reality back. “What is this, a dream?” She looked around for Bear. He was sleeping soundly in his dog bed. If he didn't notice the woman standing in the room, she clearly wasn't real.

Carter chuckled. “Does it matter? Get up, Shaw, I wanna show you something.” Shaw pondered the situation. The real Carter had died a long time ago. Samaritan was gone. She had to be dreaming. Reaching this conclusion, Shaw shrugged. She'd had worse dreams. Might as well see how this one turned out. She got out of bed. “Good girl.” Carter nodded. “Now, follow me.” Shaw followed as Carter led her to the apartment door. “Open it.” Shaw did as told, and was not at all surprised to find the door did not open to the hallway. Instead, it opened to Carter's place. It was warm, the smell of home-cooked food was in the air, and there were voices and laughter coming from the living room. Shaw knew she'd been there before. “Go on,” Carter encouraged her. Shaw stepped over the threshold. Behind her, the apartment door vanished. Shaw walked over to the living room without a rush. She knew what to expect. And sure enough, there they were. Carter and her son, Taylor. Reese. Finch. Fusco and his son, Lee. And herself. All sitting around the table, eating, drinking. Talking, smiling, having fun. It was Christmas Eve, two years ago. Carter had insisted. Looking at the scene now, it felt like a whole different life.

“Carter, what am I doing here?” Shaw asked. “With Christmas around the corner, I just wanted to remind you how nice it was when we were all celebrating together.” - “Why?” Shaw deadpanned. Carter raised an eyebrow. “'Why'?” she repeated, not understanding. “Yeah, I mean, half of these people are dead. Or, who knows where, in Finch's case. Why would you want to remind me of that?” - “To show you what's missing in your life, dummy.” Shaw shook her head. She didn't need the reminder. And missing people did not bring them back from the dead. “Can you take me back now?” The next thing Shaw knew, she was in her bed again. “Remember what you saw. I am the Ghost of Christmas Past. There will be two more Ghosts,” Carter said. Then she was gone. “Can't wait,” Shaw murmured, drifting back to sleep.

“Hey, Shaw.” Someone was tapping her shoulder. Her hand shot upward, grabbing the intruder's wrist. “Whoa there, it's me, John!” Shaw opened her eyes. “You should know better than to startle me.” She let go of him. “What do you want?” - “I came to show you something.” - “Oh, you, too?” Shaw rolled her eyes. “Let me guess, you are the Ghost of-” - “-Christmas Present,” Reese finished her sentence for her. “Alright, let's get this over with.” She got out of bed and walked right past Reese, toward the door. Before she was even halfway there, she noticed something. Voices and flickering lights. Her TV was turned on. She hadn't even watched TV that night. Suspicious. Suddenly tense, Shaw quietly approached the couch. Someone was sitting there, asleep. Upon further investigation, the person turned out to be herself. Take-out containers and a few empty bottles of beer were sitting on the table. Shaw drew her brows together. This could've been any night, except that the movie her other self fell asleep to was “A Wonderful Life”. She hadn't watched that movie in years. This situation had never happened. “It's Christmas Eve, this year,” Reese explained. Shaw had forgotten he was there. “Food and booze. Seems fine to me.” She turned around. “Can I go back to sleep now?” Not waiting for an answer, she returned to her bed. Reese followed her. “I thought you might say that. There will be one more Ghost. Merry Christmas, Shaw.” Then he vanished.

Shaw closed her eyes. Only this time, she couldn't fall asleep again. She was pretty sure who that last Ghost was going to be. And it was keeping her awake. She had often thought about what she would say to Root if she could see her one more time. She didn't know how much time had passed between Carter's and Reese's visits, yet Root seemed to be taking forever. She dozed off eventually, only to be awoken by a thud and a sudden shift on her matress. “Bear, get off,” she mumbled, reaching out a hand to push the dog back down. But the thing she ended up touching didn't feel like fur at all. That was weird. She felt around for a bit. The object beneath her fingers felt like cotton and was really, really soft. Squishy, even. It almost felt like a... Shaw's eyes shot open. Looking at Root's self-satisfied grin, she immediately pulled her hand away from her chest. “If I had known you missed me this much I would've come sooner.” She was lying next to her, one elbow cocked. “Root. I would ask you what you're doing here, but I think I already know.” - “That's right, I'm the Ghost of Christmas Future.” Root smiled brightly. “Although, technically,” she added, tilting her head, “since the future isn't written yet, I am the Ghost of A Possible Christmas Future, as is John.” Shaw stared at her blankly. “It's just, She calculated the odds, and without intervention, the future John showed you is the most likely to come to pass, so he got to be the Ghost of Christmas Present.” She put air quotes around the last word. “She is strangely traditional in that way. Personally, I would've opted for Ghost of Most Probable Christmas Future.” Listening to Root rambling about semantics, Shaw noticed herself relaxing her body. Root's presence made her feel safe. Like she could let her guard down, somewhat. She found that she enjoyed their current set-up. Not that she would let Root know. “Whatever. Are you going to make me get out of bed, too? Because that's getting old.” - “Sweetie, I've spent so much time trying to get you into bed, I'm not forcing you out now.” Root smirked. Shaw gritted her teeth. Of course she would turn this into an innuendo. Root pulled up a laptop and pushed a few keys. A video feed appeared on screen. Shaw sat up to look at it. “Does Fusco know there are cameras in his apartment?” - “She likes to keep tabs on her assets. Besides, this is a dream, remember?” Right. Shaw concentrated on the video. Fusco, his son and herself were sitting at Fusco's dinner table. They were eating, talking and laughing. She seemed to have a good time. Bear was on the floor, gnawing on his own special treat. “It's Christmas-” - “-Eve, I get it,” Shaw interrupted Root. “Fusco invited me weeks ago. I'm not really in the mood. I don't even care about Christmas. But you think I should go anyway.” - “Not just for you, Sameen. Fusco lost everyone, too. You're the only one who understands. Who was there, too. He's looking forward to it. And so is Lee. He keeps asking about you.” Shaw sighed. “Fine. I'll think about it.” Root smiled. “That's my girl.” She closed her laptop. “Now, there's one more thing before I leave.” She leaned over and kissed her. Surprised, Shaw kissed her back. It was nice. Then there was tongue. Too much tongue. All over her face. Shaw felt herself waking up. “Bear, stop it.” She tried to turn her head away from the dog who kept licking her. “I'm awake, stop it! _Foei_!” Finally, Bear obeyed. Shaw sat up, trying to remember her dream. She had a sudden urge to call Fusco.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
